For his elementary school writing level he surely
will be put in purgatory for a while at least.

CN

"Bob Crantz" wrote in message k.net...
Doug, quit bragging!

You will swim in the lava lakes!

Bob Crantz

"DSK" wrote in message
.. .
This appeared in the Sarasota newspaper and a couple of newsletters,
including the Johnson 18 class. I hesitated to publish it here, I hope
it is not seen as bragging.

Johnson 18 1998 Midwinters, Sarasota Florida
by Doug King

The Sarasota Sailing Squadron hosts an annual Midwinter One-Design
regatta. This year about 109 boats from eight classes met there. My wife
Kathie usually crews for me, and is capable and enthusiastic. However
she had a medical seminar to attend, so I asked Pete Thorn who is an
excellent sailor in another class and a great guy. The Johnson 18 class
had nine boats, a bit down from last year. There were two practice races
on Friday in balmy conditions with about eight knots of wind and
threatening thunderstorms. We missed them, although conditions were so
different the next day it didn’t matter!

A cold front passed that night. Saturday morning was crystal clear, with
25-30 knots blowing down the bay. A lot of the other boats were delaying
at the dock, but we maneuvered past them and got underway like a shot
from a cannon. My goal was to not get tired out on the forty-five minute
beat to our course. The conditions seemed envigorating to us, but other
boats found them trying: only one E-Scow came out to race and they
flipped and swamped right to windward of the starting line. The only
other class to complete races on our course was the Vipers.

The long beat was good practice steering through the chop, and when we
got to our start we got down to business- windward/leeward course, pin
end favored, wind shifted slightly left: Bang!

Pointing is not the Johnson 18’s strong suite. I footed off even more
than usual for power through the chop. Traveler down, hike like crazy...
We got plenty wet, but it was worth it when we took a long port tack
clean in front of the fleet. By the windward mark, we had a good lead,
and took off down a nice deep & easy spinnaker run. I looked back,
checking Matt Michaud in second-place often. They headed up onto a
tighter reach, and came rocketing towards us, spinnaker straining.
“Let’s head up for speed, Pete,” I said. Boy did we ever! A five degree
change in course gave us a fifteen-degree shift in apparent wind and we
took off like we had afterburners. Pete later said it was like being in
a Road Runner cartoon.

Matt had made a large gain, but pushed it a bit too much at the leeward
mark. Of course, when closing on the mark at 20+ knots it's hard to
judge time & distance accurately. I did not see all the details since we
were busy with our own boat, but it looked like they accidentally
rounded up during the spinnaker take-down, and capsized.

We held our lead for the rest of the race, covering loosely. David Keane
held on for a second place finish, followed by Shelley Cerf, John Weiss,
and Charlie Kilandor.

The second race was even tougher as the wind and chop built. We led
briefly, then Matt Michaud passed us just before the windward mark when
we busted a jib sheet. We caught up right at the leeward mark, and
regained the lead as we both sailed right past the mark getting the
spinnakers under control! On the next downwind run, we capsized gybing
and Matt took a well-earned first. Waving off assistance from a
powerboat, Pete tucked the spinnaker back into it’s bag before we pulled
the boat upright and jogged around the course for a third. We were both
dog-tired!

Sunday things were a bit calmer. It was sunny, with wind about twelve to
fifteen knots from the same direction. The chop had calmed down a bit,
too. The first start saw a recall flag- we circled back, although I was
fairly sure we were safe. It’s cheap insurance, Pete and I told each
other as we took everybody’s transom. This put us a bit farther back in
the fleet, but at the first leeward mark several boats pulled up and
hove-to next to the Race Committee boat. They were the ones the recall
flag was for! Suddenly we were in third place.

Right about then, John Weiss from White Bear Lake and his crew Cara came
zooming up on a hot reach, and we were fending off a challenger from
astern. The next windward leg saw us through an exciting tacking duel
including some false tacks. Up ahead, Charlie Kilandor was getting a
bullet, closely followed by Herman Sorin in his new boat crewing for
Jason from Johnson Boat Works. We finished third which still gave us a
solid lead for the regatta.

The next race saw me botch a start, but at least we were at the favored
end and not over early. The first leeward leg we caught a nice gust and
planed cleanly past most of the crowd in front of us. Right ahead, Jason
read the shifts well and could outpoint us by just enough to keep clear
ahead. We gained on him on the next downwind leg, but couldn’t get close
enough to threaten for the all-important inside overlap at the mark. We
took a second in that race, followed by David Keane, Charlie Kilandor,
Matt Michaud, John Weiss, Shelley Cerf, and Gregg Graton. By my figures
we had it locked up. So I asked Pete if he wanted to drive in the last
race- “Sure!”

Pete got us our best start of the regatta, and we sailed conservatively.
We had one wild scramble, planing in hot to the leeward mark with a
crowd on the outside, and although I couldn’t see anything while
kneeling in the front of the boat wrestling the spinnaker, Pete shot us
through like a pro. A little covering, and we were following Jason and
Charlie across the finish line with another clean third place and the
Johnson 18 Midwinter Championship.

Skippers Crew Sail # Finishes Score
Douglas King Pete Thorn 140 1-3-3-2-3 12
Charlie Kilandor 183 5-DNF-1-4-2 22
David Keane 0 2-2-DNS-3-5 22
Herman Sorin Jason Brown 173 DNF-DNF-2-1-1 24
Matt Michaud 151 DNF-1-DNS-5-4 30
John Weiss Cara Weiss 148 4-DNF-4-6-6 30
Shelley Cerf 138 3-DNF-DNS-7-7 37
Gregg Graton Eileen Graton 152 DNF-DNF-5-8-8 41
Brian Malone, Bahamas 147 DNF- - - - 50